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Sunday, September 22, 2013

I
first saw Clones of the Queen at a small bar in Chinatown,
Hawaii. They blew me away. The sound system at the bar was sub-par, but through the low mid tunnel and the 4kHz shred I could hear in my mind's ear what a great band they were and
how they should have sounded. I became good friends with their
electronics wizard, Matthew McVickar, and after inviting him to play a
noise show together and giving him a hand with some additional mixing for his live set, I conjured up the audacity to recommend
myself to mix their next album. Not only did he say "yes," he
immediately asked me to record and produce it! I feel very lucky to
have been able to work with one of my favorite bands, who opened for the Cure AND Toro y Moi just days before the release. We all put a lot of love into this album, and I
believe that this is easily my most solid production and mixing work to
date. It's a clean and smooth but also warm, analog-sounding album
with thousands of subtle moves under the hood. I
approached each track with different outboard gear and software as well as different mix aesthetics. It was a
complex album to produce and mix, and it's the one I'm the most proud of
today. Stream the entire album below and purchase a CD via Bandcamp!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

I met the London-based Vultures Quartet in Berlin. I already knew Will Connor from the band as he was a friend and colleague from our days at the University of Hawaii, where we got our Master's degrees. They were on a European tour, and I was traveling around Europe for the first time so Will invited me to watch them play at Staalplaat then perform with them at their second show of the evening at a place called the Loophole where we joined forces with PAS from Brooklyn and Philippe Petit from France. I liked the Vultures and PAS so much that I had them headline the Spark Festival in Minneapolis a year later. Will and I, in conversations, decided to take the opportunity and record some material while the Vultures and I were both in Minneapolis, and we did. "Sui Generis" was the result, and the album was released on an experimental Polish label called Zoharum Records earlier this year. Apparently, it is doing quite well in Europe! "Sui Generis" features Will Connor on scrap metal and wind instruments, Anthony Donovan on electric bass, electronics and found objects, Matt Chilton on laptop and modular synth and myself on sound sculpture and electronics. Listen for free below, and purchase a CD through Zoharum or the Bandcamp page!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

This is a 2-DVD instructional video by a good friend and an amazing percussionist named Scotty Horey, who plays some of the most difficult repertoire in the contemporary classical world. The first DVD features lectures and demos on topics like kinesiology and meditation, and the second disk features performances of 5 stylistically different compositions with a break down on the preparation involved in each piece. The video above is a preview of the unreleased DVD, with flutist James DeVoll, violist Benjamin Davis and percussionist Scotty Horey performing my composition, "Normale."

VIDEO
Produced by Schuyler Tsuda
Directed by Michael Olson
Edited by Schuyler Tsuda

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Those crazy Finns. I bet you've never done a recording session with a team of live videographers and projection, two contemporary dancers, a live "costumer," a free improvising speaker, a free jazz multi-instrumentalist, a chorus and special musical guests. I can now say that I have, and this is the sonic documentation of this odd performance art project. The recording features vocalist Ville Kiiski and multi-instrumentalist Erkki Huovinen on guitar, clarinet, harmonica and organ pedals. Preview and purchase the album on Amazon.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

I started mixing Patch's debut album, "Schematics" in 2009, and I worked on it with Peter Kenyon for a relatively long period of time simply because there was so much going on in each multitrack project. I finally finished mastering the album in 2010. It's a little rough around the edges, but it's an incredible debut release by one of the most inventive musicians I know. Patch is Peter Kenyon's solo project, and this is industrial rock with heavy sample and effects work. Check out the album below!

Friday, September 20, 2013

This was the first proper album that I can proudly claim to have finished as a producer/audio engineer. It is a 2-disk debut release by my noise/experimental duo, Shield Your Eyes featuring myself on sound sculpture and my good friend Michael Duffy on computer and electronics. "Sonic Alchemy" (disk 1), features studio recordings--a mix of duos and solos--and "Sonic Anarchy" (disk 2), features 2 complete live sets. Sonically, the album is an "alchemical" interweaving of electronic sources with acoustic ones with a decidedly heavy sound, and musically, the album is a mix of the brutal and the meditative. Stream the album below, and visit the Bandcamp page for high-quality download!